Life At 101http://lifeat101.com.au
Sharing the EverydayWed, 04 Apr 2018 12:36:06 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8124225503The Easter Long Weekendhttp://lifeat101.com.au/easter-long-weekend/
http://lifeat101.com.au/easter-long-weekend/#respondWed, 04 Apr 2018 11:42:58 +0000http://lifeat101.com.au/?p=337The Easter long weekend saw hubby and I tackling a range of projects at home in an attempt to get a bit more organised. What I learnt from this is that I am not cut out for physical work haha!! Most of the weekend was spent building a shed, not just your stock-standard easy peasy...

The Easter long weekend saw hubby and I tackling a range of projects at home in an attempt to get a bit more organised. What I learnt from this is that I am not cut out for physical work haha!! Most of the weekend was spent building a shed, not just your stock-standard easy peasy shed but a complicated, engineering degree required shed! Seriously it had more pieces than an Ikea flat pack piece of furniture and the instructions were even more useless, which says a lot!

Each day we got up early to tackle the days tasks. Day 1 had an air of enthusiasm and possibility. Day 2 there was still hope. Day 3 felt like friggin ground hog day. Day 4 I could have cried. There were moments of frustration and a lot of cursing (from hubby of course!) but we were still on speaking terms at the end of the weekend!!!!

We did take some time out on Easter Sunday to go to the movies. My in-laws sent some money for the girls for Easter and we thought that rather investing it in more chocolate we’d put it towards a movie. It’s not easy to find a movie to suit the girls age range but they were all happy to see Sherlock Gnomes which we all thought was a good movie.

Before we knew it the long weekend was over and the working week started again. The shed isn’t quite finished, the lights for Miss 17’s vanity aren’t installed, the shelf in Miss 18’s room isn’t hung but hey, there’s always next Easter to finish them hahaha!

And by the way our Barefoot Investor journey hasn’t been progressing too quickly either! We’ve had one date night, set up our no fee bank accounts, checked our super fees and now we’re up to checking to see if we are getting the best deals possible on our insurance and utilities….it’s on my to do list, my long, long to do list!!!!

Hope your Easter long weekend was more exciting than ours! Feel free to share what you got up to…..

]]>http://lifeat101.com.au/easter-long-weekend/feed/0337Kick Starting 2018!http://lifeat101.com.au/kick-starting-2018/
http://lifeat101.com.au/kick-starting-2018/#respondThu, 11 Jan 2018 01:44:28 +0000http://lifeat101.com.au/?p=316Each new year that rolls around I seem to be filled with enthusiasm for boundless new projects and ideas that we all know will be lost in the chaos once school returns. Amongst the resolutions and plans and projects the state of our finances always comes up. And it is never pretty! We review our...

Each new year that rolls around I seem to be filled with enthusiasm for boundless new projects and ideas that we all know will be lost in the chaos once school returns.

Amongst the resolutions and plans and projects the state of our finances always comes up. And it is never pretty! We review our budget, which we struggle to stick to, adjust a few expenses here and there to try to get the income and expenses columns to balance and that’s about it.

Hubby’s business is labour based and there are only so many chargeable hours in a day. On top of that each year seems to have a period where the work dries up a bit and as a result our personal finances suffer if there is not enough coming in to draw a wage. I’ve taken to doing a bit of Virtual Assistant work from home when I can but that is a bit sporadic income wise as well.

At the moment we are wondering how we can best create space for all of the girls and ourselves in our three bedroom house with no money to do any extensions and limited finances that won’t extend to building a granny flat or two, we are also needing to get a car that the girls can learn to drive in but again have no money to do so, we will have two starting tertiary study this year and another next year and that is not cheap, we worry about whether or not we have enough in our super funds for retirement and on top of all of that we would love to travel with the girls, maybe to Japan one day. But it all seems impossible and before you know it another year has passed and nothing has changed.

Well hopefully 2018 can be different! Hubby bought himself a copy of The Barefoot Investor for Christmas and read it whilst we were away on holidays. Now that we are back home we are going to start implementing things from the book and hopefully we can be in a better place this time next year and an even better place in say 10 years time.

I have just started to read the book and my favourite part so far is that we get to go on weekly date nights for the first five weeks, and a monthly date night thereafter…sounds good to me!

I’ll keep you updated along the way and if you’ve read the book I’d love to hear your comments, thoughts and progress too!

]]>http://lifeat101.com.au/kick-starting-2018/feed/0316The Higher School Certificate and Anxietyhttp://lifeat101.com.au/higher-school-certificate-anxiety/
http://lifeat101.com.au/higher-school-certificate-anxiety/#commentsSun, 15 Oct 2017 23:42:18 +0000http://lifeat101.com.au/?p=296Today over 70,000 year 12 students will be sitting the first of their HSC exams. Miss 18 is amongst them. But this year we are dealing with the HSC and anxiety, not really a match made in heaven! It is only recently that we truly came to the realisation that Miss 18 suffers from anxiety...

Today over 70,000 year 12 students will be sitting the first of their HSC exams. Miss 18 is amongst them. But this year we are dealing with the HSC and anxiety, not really a match made in heaven!

It is only recently that we truly came to the realisation that Miss 18 suffers from anxiety and that anxiety is, in fact, a real thing. Sounds a bit naive but some of the things that unnerve miss 18 are also things that affected me, but to a much lesser degree, when I was younger but growing up I was just referred to as being shy.

Miss 18 hates to have to be the one to go to the local bread shop to get the bread, she hates to have to go to an unknown place and ask for something, she will be my shadow at particular social functions. We didn’t think a whole lot of it.

In recent years Miss 18 would come home with an exam mark and would always lose a few marks for things that we put down to silly mistakes. Mistakes happen so again we didn’t think a whole lot of it.

Then a few months back I said to hubby that we really need to focus on Miss 18 a little more before the trials and the HSC rolled around. We didn’t know where to start so I contacted her year 12 adviser and she set up a meeting with Miss 18 and the school counsellor. Through these meetings, it was established that Miss 18 does, in fact, suffer from various forms of anxiety including social anxiety and exam anxiety.

Given this information, the next thing we looked at was trying to get special provisions for the HSC. In order to do this you need a form from the year advisor which you then need completed by your GP or other medical providers such as psychologist or specialist etc.. Once completed this form is returned to your school and they submit it to the Board Of Studies. Ensure that the form is filled in with as much detail as possible to allow for the best outcome. The Board of Studies will then either approve or decline the provisions. In some circumstances, you can appeal a declined decisions by providing further supporting information. You can read up more on special provisions in NSW here.

We were lucky enough to have Miss 18’s special provisions approved so for the HSC exams she will have separate supervision, meaning that she will sit her exam in the library with other people who have provisions rather than in that hall with over 150 other students. She will also be entitled to rest breaks, usually, 5 minutes per half-hour of examination time in which time she may stretch, move, or rest in her seat whilst the exam paper is turned over and not accessible.

Miss 18 has described the symptoms of her anxiety. Before an exam, she will start to feel unwell, worried and anxious. During an exam, she can’t focus and finds it hard to really read the questions properly. She is distracted, feels dizzy and can’t concentrate. She feels sweaty and a bit breathless. Her mind will go blank and she will forget any quotes she has learnt and mess up maths formulas that out of that exam room she knows perfectly well. If she checks over her exam paper she will second-guess herself, often changing answers that were right to now incorrect answers. And it has a spiralling effect if you feel anxious and do poorly in this exam it negatively affects how to approach the next exam.

The level of her anxiety definitely impacts her exam performance and subsequently her exam results. In the ideal world, we probably should have been seeing a psychologist to help her to work through the anxiety and to learn strategies to cope with it in both social and exam situations.

The best advise that I think Miss 18 has been given in regards to the HSC exams was from a wonderful mum at primary school who has suffered from anxiety since her teenage years and so she has spent a bit of time talking to Miss 18 to help her through it. She said to Miss 18 that the anxiety will be with her in that exam room, there is no two ways about it, it will be there. But Miss 18 just has to acknowledge that and know that it is there and try to control it to the best of her ability.

There is a lot of information online and also a lot of great resources online. One of the ones that we came across was this website – https://humanconnections.com.au

If you suspect that your child may be suffering anxiety I definitely recommend that you get them help to work through it, and the earlier the better. Speak to your school, apply for provisions and seek help that will empower them with tools and techniques to work through it.

]]>http://lifeat101.com.au/higher-school-certificate-anxiety/feed/6296Parent Teacher Interviewhttp://lifeat101.com.au/parent-teacher-interview/
http://lifeat101.com.au/parent-teacher-interview/#commentsTue, 20 Jun 2017 12:37:05 +0000http://lifeat101.com.au/?p=283Last week we received Miss 8’s report for the first two terms of Year 3 and her grades were a mix of B’s and C’s as they usually are and I was happy with that. But I knew that at today’s parent teacher interview I would be met with a bit of attitude in regards...

Last week we received Miss 8’s report for the first two terms of Year 3 and her grades were a mix of B’s and C’s as they usually are and I was happy with that. But I knew that at today’s parent teacher interview I would be met with a bit of attitude in regards to the number of days that Miss 8 has had off so far this year.

And as expected in questions that I raised in relation to Miss 8’s marks or in regards to what areas we needed to focus on for improvement were all met with responses about how she is missing ‘chunks’ of work due to her being away so much.

The “Every Minute Counts” initiative which emphasises the amount of time lost over the course of a term or a year if a child is even just 10 minutes late each day is in full force at our school with posters up everywhere. And I am not saying that I do not support the initiative but kids get sick and sometimes need to stay home. There is a difference between your child actually being away from school because they are sick and your child being late every day because they couldn’t find their shoe or their hat, or their homework, or because they slept in or missed the bus.

Miss 8 will catch every bug that goes through the school and she will usually be wiped out by it for a few days. By the end of February, she had been off school for about 4 days with a stomach bug. She was sick, in bed, sleeping.

A few weeks after she recovered from that she had a fall at gymnastics that resulted in hip/quad muscle injury and a few days off in bed icing her leg.

Other than that there have been a few other days here and there with a sore throat, cough and cold symptoms etc.. Last week she had conjunctivitis.

I had to bite my tongue a bit during the interview but I made it through! I am not going to send my child to school when she is sick, it’s that simple. And if a child is away sick there needs to be some way to help them catch up on what they have missed while they were away. I don’t have the answer to how this can be done but surely there is something that can be done, a quick revision, a sheet to take home, a link to read over at home….something.

And don’t even get me started on the fact that if other parents kept their kids home when they are sick then maybe Miss 8 wouldn’t get sick in the first place!!! Argh it’s been a long day!

What are your thoughts on the whole “Every Minute Counts” campaign? It drives me a little crazy!

]]>http://lifeat101.com.au/parent-teacher-interview/feed/1283Happy 18th Birthdayhttp://lifeat101.com.au/happy-18th-birthday/
http://lifeat101.com.au/happy-18th-birthday/#commentsTue, 13 Jun 2017 03:40:39 +0000http://lifeat101.com.au/?p=262Last week we had an amazing amount of rain that turned our backyard into a muddy swimming pool and more than dampened our plans to hold Miss 18’s birthday party out there! Picture a backyard with no pavers and no shelter. Well it was at about 9pm on Wednesday night as hubby spoke about the...

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Last week we had an amazing amount of rain that turned our backyard into a muddy swimming pool and more than dampened our plans to hold Miss 18’s birthday party out there!

Picture a backyard with no pavers and no shelter. Well it was at about 9pm on Wednesday night as hubby spoke about the possibilty of putting up tarps and putting down some sort of groundcover that we looked at each other and said this is so not going to work!

Now picture an old 1970’s 3 bedroom house that already is home to 7 people, where the loungeroom is converted to 2 bedrooms (and by converted we mean there’s two wardrobes dividing the room!) and space is something we don’t have much of!

Plan B had to be created. And so it was devised that the cats would have to be shipped off to boarding for party night, the garage (which is kinda our lounge, dining and storage all in one!) would have to be emptied out so that it could be opened up to the carport and the carport would have to be cleared of hubby’s shed, tools and crap!

By some miracle when 6pm Friday night rolled around we had a space decent enough for the party to begin!

Miss 8 was in charge of fairy lights and battery candles in mason jars. Beanbags were the seating of choice (for the girls coz clearly I wouldn’t be able to get up again!) and complimentary blankets were provided.

Simple finger food was on the menu with Terikayi Chicken Skewers, Mini Burgers, Crunchy Taco Cups as well as Spinach and Ricotta Rolls and Vegetable Quiche as vegetarian options.

]]>http://lifeat101.com.au/happy-18th-birthday/feed/3262Oz Comic-Con Giveawayhttp://lifeat101.com.au/oz-comic-con-giveaway/
http://lifeat101.com.au/oz-comic-con-giveaway/#commentsMon, 15 May 2017 21:19:47 +0000http://lifeat101.com.au/?p=248Thanks to Oz Comic-Con I have a weekend family pass valued at $150 to giveaway to one lucky reader!! I’ve never been to Oz Comic-Con but my older girls love getting into the spirit, dressing up and having a blast…I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to hear that this year hubby and I will be tagging along with...

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Thanks to Oz Comic-Con I have a weekend family pass valued at $150 to giveaway to one lucky reader!!

I’ve never been to Oz Comic-Con but my older girls love getting into the spirit, dressing up and having a blast…I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to hear that this year hubby and I will be tagging along with them as Oz Comic-Con have also been generous enough to give us a family pass to attend as well!

Oz Comic-Con literally has something for everyone with special guests, presentations, family activities, cosplay and more. It is perfect for the whole family to attend. The remaining shows available are:

For more information on dates, times, guest and all other information you can visit Oz Comic-Con here.
How to Enter:
1. Pop over and like my facebook page Life At 101
2. Comment below on this blog post with an answer this question in 50 words or less:“Who would you dress up as to go to Oz Comic-Con and why?”

The Prize:
The winner will receive a weekend family pass (2 adults and 2 children) valued at $150 to their choice of either Melbourne, Brisbane or Sydney shows.

Terms and Conditions:1. Competition is open to Australian residents only2. One entry per person.3. The winners will be chosen based on the most creative answer. No discussion over judging will be entered into.4. Competition starts on Tuesday 16th May at 8.00am AEST and ends on Tuesday 30th May at 5.00pm AEST5. The winner will be announced on Friday 2nd June on my facebook page…make sure you’ve liked it here so that you can see if you have won!!
6. The winner will have 48 hours to get in touch to claim their prize or a new winner will be chosen

]]>http://lifeat101.com.au/oz-comic-con-giveaway/feed/30248It’s Been A Little Quiethttp://lifeat101.com.au/its-been-a-little-quiet/
http://lifeat101.com.au/its-been-a-little-quiet/#commentsTue, 02 May 2017 04:26:53 +0000http://lifeat101.com.au/?p=236It’s been a little quiet here on the blog for the last two weeks….because I am sick 🙁 Two weeks ago today we returned home from our awesome Easter weekend away in Melbourne and since back home to reality, work, school and the usual pile of post holiday washing my cold has really started to...

It’s been a little quiet here on the blog for the last two weeks….because I am sick

Two weeks ago today we returned home from our awesome Easter weekend away in Melbourne and since back home to reality, work, school and the usual pile of post holiday washing my cold has really started to take hold…the whole runny nose, sore throat, watery eyes, ear ache, headache….the lot!

And whilst we all know rest is the best cure we also know that there is no rest for mums!!!

In the last two weeks school has gone back, miss 17 has had a soccer gala day, netball season has started, soccer season is continuing, it was my turn at canteen duty….and on and on it goes! In addition to all of the usual things going on Miss 8 had suspected appendicitis….seems to have subsided for now but that meant a few nights broken sleep. Miss 17 had to go to the doctor after being hit in the head by the ball at above-mentioned gala day and she is still getting a few headaches so still monitoring. And to take the cake miss 12 tore her medial ligament in the second quarter of the first netball game of the season so we are currently spending a lot of time at doctors, getting ultrasounds and visiting physio.

But hopefully, I am on the road to recovery now and over the next few weeks, I have some great things coming up on the blog!! I have a pass to give away to Oz Comic-Con and I will be doing a review of our Melbourne trip with a little giveaway too! So lots of fun ahead.

But for now, that medication that the doctor prescribed this morning really does make you drowsy…so looks like nap time for me before I have to head off to pick up the girls from school thanks to Miss 12 and her crutches!

]]>http://lifeat101.com.au/its-been-a-little-quiet/feed/2236Downloadable Easter Activities for the Kidshttp://lifeat101.com.au/easter-activities-kids/
http://lifeat101.com.au/easter-activities-kids/#commentsFri, 07 Apr 2017 07:48:03 +0000http://lifeat101.com.au/?p=185Well the countdown to Easter is well and truly on now. The last few Christmas decorations that missed the major pack up have been pushed aside and the Easter decorations have taken their place and daily Miss 8 updates us on how many sleeps to go. Since we will have a week of school holidays before...

]]>Well the countdown to Easter is well and truly on now. The last few Christmas decorations that missed the major pack up have been pushed aside and the Easter decorations have taken their place and daily Miss 8 updates us on how many sleeps to go.

Since we will have a week of school holidays before it is officially Easter I have put together a few Easter activities that might help to keep the children entertained.

FIND-A-WORD
I love me a find-a-word so here is a printable Easter themed one to keep their minds active.
Click on this link Print your find-a-word or the image to print your copy.

BUNNY BUNTING
And I cannot resist cute bunny craft so here is an easy Easter Bunny Bunting activity that you can re-create by watching miss 8’s YouTube channelhttps://youtu.be/cDEetXx-V9Y

Print out the bunny template Easter Bunny Bunting Template
Trace around the template onto your coloured paper.
Cut out your bunny shapes.
Glue a cotton ball onto each of your bunny shapes to represent the bunny tail.
Hole punch each of the bunny ears and then thread your string/ribbon through the holes.
Now you’re done! All you have to do is find somewhere to hang your bunny bunting!!

EASTER CARDS
Resize, print and use the images below, together with paper, card and embellishments that you have in your craft box at home, to create your own Easter cards for friends and family. Click on the images to print.

Here are a few cards that Miss 8 made using the images above and a few other bits of cardstock, stickers, and embellishments

COLOURING INPrint this cute little hand drawn picture for your little ones to colour in by clicking this link Happy Easter colouring page or by clicking on the image.

I hope your children enjoy these activities whilst they wait ever so patiently for the arrival of the Easter Bunny! Wishing you all a very happy and safe Easter xx

]]>http://lifeat101.com.au/easter-activities-kids/feed/10185Long Lost Best Friendshttp://lifeat101.com.au/long-lost-best-friends/
http://lifeat101.com.au/long-lost-best-friends/#respondTue, 04 Apr 2017 10:51:30 +0000http://lifeat101.com.au/?p=164Yesterday was the usual kind of weekday, plenty of tasks on the to-do list and plenty of procrastinating before getting to said tasks! For some reason, in between scheduling a client’s social media posts for the week and editing images for another’s website I found myself on Facebook searching the name of one of my...

Yesterday was the usual kind of weekday, plenty of tasks on the to-do list and plenty of procrastinating before getting to said tasks!

For some reason, in between scheduling a client’s social media posts for the week and editing images for another’s website I found myself on Facebook searching the name of one of my old girlfriends who I have not even thought about in years. We went to high school together and developed a friendship when there were only a few of us from our year 7-10 high school who went to this particular year 11-12 high school. Our friendship continued through the early years of uni despite her moving some 300kms away to study. I’d go and visit her at uni and stay during the holidays and vice-versa. We had some crazy times, so many laughs. It was a blast when we got together.

Then towards the end of uni we both had boyfriends and the guys we were dating were nothing alike so time together became less and less.

She got married not long out of uni and then we didn’t see each other for years until she started work at the same company that I was with but in a different department. At that time I was leaving that company to work full time for my now hubby’s business so that was the last time I crossed paths with her.

I’ve thought about her here and there over the years when something triggered a memory but it was nothing more than a fleeting thought so I don’t really know what brought about yesterdays’ Facebook search.

When I first found her profile I thought maybe I would get in touch.

Her Facebook profile is pretty limited but it appears that she is still married and has 2 children. Further searching led me to her LinkedIn profile and it seems that she has been quite successful in her field. She has gained qualifications at a few universities. Based on these few tidbits I have pieced together an idyllic life for her.

And that is when I decided that I would not get in touch.

Because hey, she has multiple degrees, is successful in her work life, still looks fantastic in her profile pic, lives in a popular area of Sydney. I, on the other hand, have done nothing with my degree, we stumble along with constant financial pressures, in my profile pic I am carrying an extra 12 kilos that really can’t be blamed on baby weight when your youngest is 8 years old and bags under my eyes that no concealer can hide and I live in a shitty old 3 bedroom house in Western Sydney where the roof leaks and the chaos reigns.

The way that life turned out I don’t actually have contact with any of my school friends, we all pretty much took different paths and given that this was before mobile phones and emails etc… keeping in contact was a bit more effort than it is these days and so one way or another we all lost touch. So what was a spur of the moment Facebook search that completely came out of nowhere kinda left me amazed at how different our lives were after some 20 plus years!

I have no idea what I was expecting to see when I searched her name! And I have no idea why I am comparing myself to someone else, even though I have no desire to have gone down the path that she did…wow bit cray cray hey!

I have never had a strong desire to be a part of the corporate world and working for hubby’s business has been ideal for me. Also I am not the kind of person that could ever have left my babies to be cared for, it’s just not me, I couldn’t do it, and in making that decision hubby and I have known that there would be sacrifices financially etc but I have been there for their every milestone and their every moment and that is worth more than anything to me. Besides I can’t keep this tiny house clean…I don’t need a bigger one! (and I am happy for people with their dream homes and dream careers and we are all different, and I know that and that’s cool!)

And it’s not all bad because hubby and I are collectively good at making bad decisions, like the one where we just put our tax returns towards a family trip to Melbourne for Easter rather than towards the car rego lol !!! We know all too well that you only live once, and that your kids only want to hang out with you for so long!

]]>http://lifeat101.com.au/long-lost-best-friends/feed/0164Community Service Announcementhttp://lifeat101.com.au/community-service-announcement/
http://lifeat101.com.au/community-service-announcement/#commentsMon, 27 Mar 2017 22:06:32 +0000http://lifeat101.com.au/?p=157So just as I was about the set the alarm for morning on my mobile phone last night it decided to stuff up. Thinking that I was so tech savvy I tried a quick reset assuming that that would solve the problem but seems I was wrong….very wrong! It then froze on the reset screen...

So just as I was about the set the alarm for morning on my mobile phone last night it decided to stuff up. Thinking that I was so tech savvy I tried a quick reset assuming that that would solve the problem but seems I was wrong….very wrong! It then froze on the reset screen and wouldn’t budge! Thank goodness for plan B…I set the alarm on the iPad and went to sleep, half expecting my phone to just work when I woke up….wrong again!

A bit of googling this morning and it seems I could reset it via iTunes and my laptop but I’d probably lose everything because we all know we don’t think about backing up our phones until its too late!! I’d rather pop down to the Phone Doctor at the shops just in case there is a slight chance that he can resuscitate it, but Miss 8 is home sick so that puts a downer on that plan.

At least three times this morning I have gone to check the time on my phone and once I went to take a quick pic….doh!! It feels eerily quiet! I had to remind the girls which bus to catch this afternoon before they left home and I can’t send them that reminder text at 2.40pm because we all know they are going to forget and I even had to send hubby an email because I had to remind him about things happening tonight!

Just how much I rely on that phone is freaky! It has all of my contacts and their numbers, I don’t have a little address book by the landline like my mum used to so if they are all lost in the repairs I have to start the daunting process of asking everyone for their contact details! I am logged into all of my social media accounts and all of my clients social media accounts, you know, even the ones you can’t remember the log in details for, I can’t get in touch with miss 19 in Japan just to see how her day is going, I can’t check the note that I made about what I have to buy at the grocery store today, although again that won’t be happening with miss 8 home sick!

All that I really care about on the phone is the photos and I do download them to dropbox irregularly so all will not be lost, well except maybe for miss 16’s sweet 16th pics, but hey that was a room full of 16 year old girls with mobile phones so I’m pretty sure I can recover the important moments from them!

Hubby is going to gloat over this, he is always harping on about how I should have the updates up to date and blah blah blah!!!! Here’s hoping that the Phone Doctor can give it a new lease of life when I can finally get there and nothing will be lost and then we can just carry on like nothing ever happened!!

Let’s just pretend that this is a community service announcement brought to you by me to remind you to back up your phone regularly!! Are you more organised than me and you’re all over this back up thing?